The uranium processing industry gives rise to tailings which contain fairly high concentrations, on the order of 1%, of the rare metal scandium. In addition to a comparable amount of uranium, there are other components present that have lower economic values such as iron.
A process that provides for the efficient recovery of the uranium at the same time as the scandium would be an advancement in the art. In this way the metal values recovered are increased at the same time that the objections to subsequent disposal of the material are reduced.
A process that provides for recovering the uranium and scandium separated from one another rather than mixed together would also be an advancement in the art. U.S. Pat. No.4,816,233 issued March 28, 1989, and assigned to the same assignee as the present application discloses a process for separating trace amounts of scandium from ore processing waste via an ion exchange process. U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,233 and the disclosure thereof are incorporated by reference herein. The present invention is a modification of the process disclosed in the above-mentioned patent that enables both the uranium and